She is an English/French/Danish trilingual with strong interests in language learning and teaching. She learned Spanish, Russian, German,Hebrew & Turkish in natural and classroom environments, and draws on these experiences in her research and graduate teaching. Her research is primarily qualitative with a penchant for ethnographic research involving school-aged minority language students in programs designed with different student populations in mind; hence, the title of her PhD thesis: "Trilingualism by design? An investigation into the educational experience of Kurdish children schooled in Denmark.” Her broader research interests include issues of language, identity & power, bilingual education, content-based instruction, minority studies, ESL, & FSL.

Taylor, S. K. (2009-b). Paving the way to a more multilingual TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 43(2), 309-313.

Taylor, S. K. (2009-c). Right pedagogy, wrong language, & caring in times of fear: Issues in the schooling of ethnic Kurdish children in Denmark. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 12(3), 291-307.

Taylor, S. K. (2009-d). Tongue-tied no more? Beyond linguistic colonialization of multilingual children in the public school system. Race, ethnicity and education, 12(3), 417-426.

Taylor, S. K. (1997-a). ‘I treat them all the same': Educator role definitions and child multilingualism in minorities in a minority. Københavnerstudier i tosprogethed, 27 [Copenhagen Studies in Bilingualism, 27], 159-185.

Teaching and Supervision

This course reviews issues of theory and methods in education research. Language, principles, reasoning, methodologies, and tests of validity for both quantitative and qualitative research will be critically examined.

Aims, Goals, Objectives, Outcomes:This is a senior graduate course designed to provide students with a deeper knowledge and understanding of key issues related to conducting educational research. It deals with philosophical, epistemological, political and ethical issues and is designed to equip students with a necessary basis for understanding the language, principles, reasoning and methodologies of both qualitative and quantitative orientations to conducting research which need not be conceived as mutually exclusive approaches.

In this course, candidates will examine ongoing and more recent concerns, issues, and debates in applied linguistics that currently inform second language acquisition (SLA) research and second/foreign language teaching. Among the concerns, issues, and debates to be explored are: (a) What does second language (L2) proficiency entail? What promotes L2 proficiency? What is the relationship between L2 proficiency and overall academic achievement? What is the role of L2 instruction in promoting L2 proficiency? How does L2 proficiency influence learners’ ability to reference reading material? (b) Can one ever “learn” an L2 or can an L2 only be “acquired”? Can one separate L2 acquisition and learning? Which instructional innovations heighten grammatical accuracy (focus-on-form) yet maintain/enhance communicative competence? (c) What is the role of mother tongue (L1) development in L2 learning (e.g., the Interdependence hypothesis)? How do different L1s influence learning different L2s? How can L2 educators draw on learners’ L1 knowledge to heighten their L2 proficiency? (d) What can L2 educators do to promote learners’ L2 learning strategies and socio-academic success? What is the role of learner perceptions and emotions in SLA? (e) How can these issues be accounted for in L2 program planning, evaluation, and teacher preparation? Issues in Second Language Teaching and Learning is a broadly based course designed to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of language educators with experience in elementary, secondary, or college language teaching.

In this course--of interest to language educators with experience in elementary, secondary, or college/university level language teaching--students will explore theories of first, second and additional language acquisition and the relationships, if any, between them. The focus of the course is on the acquisition process, and instructional and environmental influences on language acquisition as both have bearing upon the extent and success of acquisition or, at times, language loss.

to introduce students to principles of minority language learning and teaching Students will identify factors in the first and second language learning experiences of minority language speakers, note differences in the educational experience of minority and majority language speakers, and examine the implications of these factors and differences for teaching minority language speakers.

to acquaint students with minority language issues which recur in different settings Students will be encouraged to focus on a particular minority language group and analyse minority language issues which arise in the education of that group.

to encourage students to become more aware of beliefs, assumptions and educational structures Students may explore this topic by way of an empirical study or research paper.

Other

AILA Research Network Convener International research network involving Griffith University in Australia, Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and 3 Canadian universities (Western, York & the University of Toronto) & the following professors: Jim Cummins, David Little, Anne Holmen, Farahnaz Faez, Geoff Lawrence, Shelley K. Taylor & Kerry Taylor-Leech